There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing an error message when trying to send a text. You may stare at your phone or computer and wonder, why are my texts not sending?
In this article, we’ll discuss 10 common reasons why your business texts won’t send and offer solutions to prevent or fix error messages.
10 common reasons your mass texts aren’t sending
Here are some of the most frequent reasons why your business texts aren’t sending to your contacts.
1. Your business texting number isn’t properly registered
In an effort to curb spam text messaging, mobile carriers require businesses to register their phone numbers before texting customers. Businesses register 10-digit local numbers with an entity called The Campaign Registry, and toll-free numbers with Twilio. This registration process ensures mobile carriers verify your business, SMS use case, and opt-in procedures.
If you haven’t properly registered your phone number, your messaging may be filtered, limited, or not sent.
Our recommendation: You can ensure your phone number is registered properly by working with a compliant SMS platform like Textline. Registration is done in the Textline application and reviewed by our expert team to ensure you can send mass texts to your contacts.
2. Mobile carriers flagged your message content
Texting is highly regulated to protect consumers from spam. As a result, mobile carriers like AT&T and Verizon use content filters to prevent the delivery of messages they deem objectionable. There are a few reasons why mobile carriers may block your message, including:
- It contains SHAFT content. Mobile carriers ban texts containing SHAFT content, which stands for sex, hate, alcohol, firearms, or tobacco.
- It contains other off-limit topics. Mobile carriers have other prohibited messaging topics, like profanity, cannabis, high-risk financial services, and get-rich-quick schemes.
- It has spelling mistakes or grammatical errors. If your message contains many spelling and grammatical errors, it can set off carrier filters.
- It has a suspicious link. If your SMS link looks suspicious, mobile carriers will flag your message and prevent it from being sent.
Mobile carriers will not share why a particular message was flagged; they will just show a carrier violation error.
Our recommendation: Avoid off-limit texting topics, remain professional, and always proofread your messages.
3. You used a link shortener
Mobile carriers often block text messages that contain links, especially if they look suspicious or if you used a link shortener like bit.ly. Mobile carriers block these messages because they’re often associated with spam text messages.
Our recommendation: Use a branded link or the full link that isn’t shortened so mobile carriers can see it’s legitimate.
4. The customer unsubscribed from your messaging
One key component of a compliant texting campaign is honoring SMS opt-outs. Most business texting platforms will automatically unsubscribe contacts from your list if they reply with words like STOP, HELP, or UNSUBSCRIBE. You won’t be able to text that contact again unless they reply with START or YES.
On Textline’s SMS platform, you will see an error message pop up that says “customer unreachable by SMS” if this is the reason your text won’t send.
Our recommendation: Be mindful of how you text your contacts, so you can keep them engaged and prevent unsubscribes.
5. You’re sending too many messages
Your messages may not be sent if you consistently text contacts the same message without a reply, or if you send a large number of repetitive messages in a short time period. These acts may trigger carrier filtering. While there’s no hard and fast rule about how many texts you can send per day, it’s important to be careful that you’re not sending the same contact too many one-way texts a day.
Our recommendation: Always be mindful of the frequency of your text messages. Ensure your contact list is segmented appropriately and that contacts don’t fall into multiple categories.
6. Issues with a contact’s phone number
There could be an issue with the phone number you’re trying to reach. Here are some common phone number issues:
- The phone number doesn’t exist. The number provided to you may not exist or is deactivated. This could happen because you typed in a number incorrectly or the number is no longer in service.
- It’s an invalid phone number. This can happen when a phone number isn’t 10 digits or lacks a country code to denote a different number format.
- You’re messaging a landline. Many business landlines don’t support text messages, so you may be trying to send a message to a phone number that doesn’t accept SMS.
Our recommendation: Clean your contact lists regularly to ensure you have the right phone numbers and formatting.
Textline, for example, will provide you with a list of invalid numbers when sending a mass text. This can help you easily clean your lists.
7. You’re trying to reach an international customer
Each country has its own rules and regulations around business texting. As a result, your message may be blocked or filtered based on those rules.
For example, Canadian mobile network operators only allow businesses to text Canadian numbers with toll-free numbers. Any business using a 10-digit number to message Canadian numbers will be blocked. Read more about the types of phone numbers for business texting.
In other countries, promotional messages can only be sent on business days, which could result in your message not being delivered.
Our recommendation: Learn about the texting regulations in your country or pick an SMS platform that can help you understand those regulations. Textline’s compliance team is just a text away if you want to ask about your country’s specific requirements.
8. Your customer’s phone settings
Android and iPhone users can set up various filters on their devices that could prevent your text from arriving in their inbox. As a result, your business may not be able to reach them via text.
For example, Apple allows iPhone users to filter messages from unknown senders as well as businesses.
Our recommendation: If a contact wants to receive text messages from you but isn’t receiving them, reach out via email or on a phone call so they can check these settings.
9. Network interruptions
Sometimes, your contact may not have a network connection. For example, they may be in a different country or have their device in Airplane mode.
When a device is unable to connect to a cellular network, texts will not be delivered until it is reconnected.
Our recommendation: If this is a one-off situation, be patient. The text message will be delivered as soon as the contact’s device reconnects to the cellular network.
10. Technical difficulties
Sometimes, a technical issue could be the reason your texts are not sent. A mobile carrier may have hardware problems that prevent messages from reaching your contact, or your business texting provider may be experiencing service disruptions.
Our recommendation: If a technical issue is involved, most SMS platforms and mobile carriers have service outages or status pages. Check this status page first before contacting the provider.
Best practices to ensure SMS delivery
Want to avoid needing to even ask “why are my text messages not sending”? Here are six best practices that can help you avoid carrier filtering and get your texts sent.
- Choose the right service provider. When selecting a business texting provider, you want to find one that is reliable, offers great customer support, and assists with phone number registration. One of the best ways to find the right provider is to read online reviews on websites like G2 and Trustpilot.
- Adhere to compliance rules. Understand the different regulatory requirements in the texting industry. This will help you avoid sending messages that get blocked or filtered. For example, your texting number must be registered properly, and you must collect SMS opt-ins.
- Optimize content. To avoid carrier filtering, ensure your messages don’t include questionable language or prohibited topics. For example, you should always proofread, steer clear of profanity, and avoid off-limit topics.
- Pay attention to timing and message frequency. The timing and frequency of your messages matter. For example, marketing messages should be sent during business hours to avoid carrier filtering. Additionally, be mindful of the number of texts you send contacts per week.
- Clean contact lists. Another component is to regularly clean your SMS contact lists. This will help you avoid sending messages to contacts who unsubscribed or help you remove numbers that are invalid.
- Track and monitor. Most SMS platforms will give you insights into how many mass texts weren’t sent to your contacts. This can help you identify contacts to remove or why errors occurred.
Meet Textline, your SMS delivery partner
Textline is a secure business texting platform that prides itself on being a reliable service at all times of the day. Our team is dedicated to helping our customers with compliance tasks and keeping our service running efficiently so customers' texts are sent.
Are you interested in seeing how the Textline platform works? Request a demo with our expert team.
